Just in time for Christmas - our supplier assures us they will ship in time - we have re-released OilersNation hoodies and introduced CanucksArmy and TheLeafsNation hoodies for the sexy hockey fan on Santa's list this year.

Per usual we were asleep at the switch and didn't realize that November 17 marked the 6th birthday of the Nation Network. We can only imagine that this is foreshadowing to days where we will forget our wife's birthday and most of our children's names and birthdays as well. Sorry whomever you may be, we have a lot going on in this brain of ours* and sometimes things slip through the cracks.

(Nicholas Emptage is a numbers-oriented bloke who runs Puck Prediction. He will be chipping in around here from time to time)

There are few things more reliable in the world of hockey than the tendency of fans to question their teams' coaches and this NHL season is no different.

Poor starts have already cost the Flyers' Peter Laviolette and the Sabres' Ron Rolston their jobs. Canadiens' fans are criticizing the decision-making of Michel Therrien, and supporters of the Rangers, Canucks, and other teams have already put their head coaches under fire.

Possession is a performance metric that has been well tracked, documented and analyzed by those in the hockey analytics community. The simple premise is if you have the puck more, you are more likely to score and less likely to be scored against. Strong possession teams have shown to consistently do well over the long term. While the NHL has a plethora of data, other hockey leagues barely track a small percentage of what the NHL makes available.

Read on to see my attempt at a proxy for possession in the American Hockey League...

TSN flashed its projection for the Canadian Olympic roster last night, and while there are players to complain about, as always, when you're stacking 30 capable players onto a 23-man roster, there's going to be disagreement. You can quibble with Patrice Bergeron being off the team in favour of Jeff Carter, quibble with Martin St. Louis not making the cut, or quibble with the logic that Chris Kunitz is the only left winger in the world that plays well next to Sidney Crosby.

But the defence is where I have the biggest issue. Currently, TSN has P.K. Subban, the reigning Norris Trophy winner, on the team's "fifth pairing", effectively as a bubble player. Why?